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Friday, August 29, 2014

Sexism Doesn't Need to be Baited

Women don't self-engineer harassment and death threats on the internet.

1) What the fuck are you serious?

That's absolutely crazy. What kind of person would put themselves in danger like that?

And YES, when people take pictures of your house, like they did with Laci Green, or post the names of your family and your address, like they did with Anita Sarkeesian, or post your home address online where any asshole with a computer can get it, like they did with Zoe Quinn, that is REAL danger. You can't argue that it's just an empty threat or that no one would actually do anything with it because you don't know that. You don't leave a loaded gun in the middle of the street, either. Most people aren't going to pick it up and start shooting into the crowd...but you don't want to risk the very likely chance that there is SOMEONE just waiting for the opportunity...

And if someone is brandishing a gun at you, asking for your money, how many of would go along your merry way assuming that the person isn't serious and won't shoot you? Because I'm willing to bet the answer is zero because that would be fucking stupid.

And there's a whole extra talk we might need to have if you seriously just said, "It's an empty threat. It's not like they're going to do anything." Because, guys? THAT'S NOT FUCKING BETTER!

2) Women don't need to self-engineer harassment.

Do they have a vagina?

They've been harassed.

Or worse, do they not present female but IDENTIFY as female?

Then buddy, they're already harassed daily.

DAILY.

Thousands of awful, awful messages. They don't need to fake a scary threat, or push someone into reacting so they can point to it and say, "Here! The misogyny is here!" That shit is ever-present, like smog in LA or niceness in Canada. You can't escape it. It's like fucking poison in the air.

(More additional thoughts: if you're the type of person that CAN be pushed into reacting with misogyny or rape threats, or dead threats--YOU'RE STILL AN ASSHOLE. Should this really even be a question?)

And if you say talking about it and showing proof is just trying to whip up the controversy and make people pay more attention to you, YOU are an asshole. No debate. This is not a gray area. Women. Do not. Deserve. Death threats. End of story.

When they say a few bad apples have ruined the whole bunch, they aren't kidding.

There has been such a negative reaction to Anita Sarkeesian's series that, even if someone did have valid criticisms of her argument, it's a single grain of sugar in a swirling sea of salt water. Because we have to constantly respond to the bullshit of asshole entitled pricks, we can't actually have much of a discussion about valid criticisms, and how they fuck is she supposed to sift through thousands of rape and death threats, irrational whining, and entitled garment rending, in order to find the handful of valid criticisms to respond to them? She can't.

And Zoe Quinn? WHO THE FUCK CARES WHO SHE SLEEPS WITH? I mean, cheating is wrong, but it's also between her and the people she has sex with. Are you dating her? Or having sex with her? If not, shut the fuck up. I know celebrity culture has us thinking that we're privy to the dark details of everyone's life, but that's not actually how it works. She's allowed to date and sleep with whoever she wants.

In the short time between when I originally wrote this article and when it posted, Kotaku announced a policy banning all Patreon contributions among its staff in order to ensure strict neutrality. Note this is a much stricter policy than many actual journalistic outlets have for giving to actual political campaigns.

About Me

J. M. Dow's owner pressed the B button, preventing him from evolving into his final form. He's had a fascination with dark, weird things since he was a little kid sneaking into the living room to watch late-night reruns of Tales from the Crypt. He lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife and weenie dog.